Dimiter Georgiev
Managing director and tour leader

Dimiter lives in the city of Varna on the northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast. He has graduated in forestry, completing his Master’s thesis on the conservation of birds and habitats of the Kamchia flooded forests – the biggest riverine forest complex along the Bulgarian coast.

Being an active member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria, Dimiter has worked on various projects focusing on the studying and conservation of Bulgarian birds, like the monitoring and conservation of the wintering Red-breasted Geese in Coastal Dobrudja, studying the autumn migration along the Via Pontica Flyway, establishing the BirdLife International “Important Bird Areas” network in Bulgaria.

Having led a big number of birdwatching and natural history tours, Dimiter has accumulated a great knowledge and experience and can help you find and explore the best birding places in Bulgaria. Since 1995 Dimiter is the Managing Director of Neophron Tours, the tourist company of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds. He believes that the environment friendly tourism will greatly contribute to improving the life of local people and will raise their awareness to wildlife and nature conservation.

Petar Iankov
Tour leader

Petar is one of the best experts in Bulgarian birds and bird areas.

He has graduated from Sofia University and completed his PhD on the bird fauna of the city of Sofia. In fact he is one of the pioneers of the birdwatching tourism in Bulgaria, playing an active role on its development during the last 20 years.

Petar is one of the founders of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and has been its Director for nearly 10 years. He is an author of the book "Where to watch birds in Bulgaria", issued in 1996 - the first complete guide of this kind in Bulgaria.

Thanks to his great experience in biodiversity conservation, Petar has played the main role for elaboration of the management plans of the Central Balkan National Park, Rila National Park, the Rila Monastery Nature Park and many other significant nature territories in Bulgaria.

Petar is the Editor-in-Chief of the Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Bulgaria, which was published in 2008 and is the first ever of this kind in the country. Petar is also a member of the Bulgarian Rarities Committee.

Bozhidar Ivanov
Tour leader

Bozhidar is one of the Bulgaria's leading ornithologists, one of the founders of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and its chairman for 8 years.

Bozhidar works at the Institute of Zoology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where he is in charge of the Laboratory of Zoocenology. As a scientist, Bojidar has published a lot of articles and scientific works, among which the most solid scientific monography "The Birds of Bulgaria". He is a member of the editorial board of the Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Bulgaria, published in 2008. At present Bozhidar is also the Chairman of the Bulgarian Rarities Committee.

He has been guiding birdwatching, wildlife and natural history tours for more than 15 years. Bozhidar speaks 4 languages and has a vivid sense of humour, which makes him one of the most popular birding guides in Bulgaria.

Assen Ignatov
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Assen is one of the most popular wildlife guides in Bulgaria. He holds a MSc in biology and zoology and currently works at the National Natural History Museum.

Apart from his scientific background, Assen is also an excellent wildlife photographer and artist with numerous exhibitions in art galleries in the country and abroad. His watercolor drawings and paintings are featured in various books, magazines, calendars and other publications, among which the Bulgarian edition of the National Geographic. His many awards include the Birdwatch Artist of the Year 2002.

Assen leads birdwatching, butterfly, natural history, wildlife art and photography tours. Because of his knowledge, preciseness and attentive nature the tours he guides are really delightful.

Mladen Vasilev
Tour leader and wildlife photographer
http://www.mladvaswildlife.com/

Mladen has graduated from the Shumen University with major Ecology and Environmental Protection.

Mladen has been always interested in birds and nature and is a member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) since 2000. He has participated in most of the major BSPB projects (Red-breasted Goose and Egyptian Vulture conservation, Natura 2000 establishment, and many others).

Mladen is also a member of the Maine Audubon Society (Maine, USA) and has guided birding trips in Maine, USA during the summer seasons of 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Mladen is very keen on wildlife photography and has published many photos of birds in Bulgarian and European magazines.

He has been guiding birdwatching, natural history and wildlife photography trips for Neophron Tours since 2005.

Svetoslav Spasov
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Svetoslav has graduated from Sofia University with a Master's degree in Biology. For several years he has worked as a Monitoring Officer at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds where he has been in charge of the bird monitoring activities such as Common Bird Monitoring, Mid-winter count of Waterfowl, single species surveys, etc. Currently Svetoslav is managing a LIFE+ project for the conservation of the Imperial Eagle and the Saker Falcon in Bulgaria.

Svetoslav is the author of the field bird guide "Widespread Birds in Bulgaria" and several articles on bird distribution and numbers.

Wildlife photography and especially bird photography has been Svetoslav's hobby for a long time. Many of his photos have been published in various books and magazines (including The National Geographic Bulgaria) and have been shown in several exhibitions.

Svetoslav has been a leader of birdwatching and wildlife photography tours since 2001 and it is the most enjoyable part of his work.

Tihomir Stefanov
Tour leader and wildlife photographer

Tihomir is presently working at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia as a Head of Department of Recent and Fossil Fishes. His main research topic is taxonomy and phylogeny of the freshwater fishes in Bulgaria but he is also enthusiastic naturalist and very keen in birdwatching.

As an active volunteer of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds since 1995 he has participated in many field activities and projects. He has been also a Council member of the Society for the period 2003-2006.

Tihomir has been involved in many environmental projects like the preparation of the Management plan of the Pirin National Park, the development of the National Biodiversity Monitoring System in Bulgaria and the establishment of the Bulgarian Natura 2000 network. His hobbies include birdwatching, wildlife photography and angling.

Iordan Hristov
Tour leader

Iordan has graduated in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the Central European University in Hungary. In addition, he has spent a year at Cambridge, UK doing research on environmental policy within a British Council Chevening scholarship.

He has been an active member of Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) since 1998 and has participated in numerous bird census field activities and public awareness campaigns. Currently Iordan coordinates the bird monitoring activities of BSPB and is a co-author of a guidebook on the widespread birds in Bulgaria. Thus tourists guided by Iordan get an insight of the conservation activities of BSPB throughout the country.

Iordan joined Neophron Tours in 2005 and has led a variety of tours for keen birders, bear watching and general nature lovers. His specialty is the mountainous tours.

Stoycho Stoychev
Tour leader

Stoycho is one of the best experts in raptor conservation in Bulgaria. He has graduated from the Plovdiv University and completed his Master's thesis on the bird fauna of Sakar Hills. Stoycho has run several educational and conservation projects of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) aimed at raptors conservation and has led the Imperial Eagle working group of BSPB that is highly successful in improving the status of this globally threatened species. At present he works as a Conservation Director of BSPB.

Stoycho is the author of the books "Helping the Lords of the air" dedicated to the Imperial eagle and "Protected areas in the Eastern Rhodopes and Sakar Mountains".

His work as a tour leader is also connected to conservation. He has developed a birding route that brings incomes to the villages in Imperial Eagle areas, thus gaining local support.

Simeon Gigov
Tour leader

Simeon holds a Bachelor Degree in Tourism and is now running his MBA at Sofia University.

For more than 5 years Simeon has been an active member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds/BirdLife Bulgaria and has participated in numerous bird census field activities and public awareness campaigns. Currently he works as a monitoring assistant in the Common Birds Monitoring Scheme at BSPB. He is also running a project for the conservation of the Red-breasted Geese at Durankulak Lake.

Being a very skillful birder with great conservation and natural history knowledge, Simeon is becoming increasingly popular with our special interest customers. He has two years of guiding experience abroad, including two summers in Denali National Park in Alaska.

Minko Madzharov
Tour leader

Minko is one of the youngest and most enthusiastic members of our team. He is finishing his education at Sofia University with major Biology. Being a member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) since 1998, he has worked on different projects of the organization, like the Red-breasted Goose Conservation Project, Monitoring of the Autumn Migration of the Soaring Birds, Saker Falcon Conservation Project and many others.

Minko is also very interested in marine birds biology and conservation and studies the Shag and the Mediterranean Shearwater along the Bulgarian Black-sea coast. He speaks German and English.

Mihaela Yordanova
Tour leader

Mihaela is a botanist, currently working on her PhD at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Besides leading botanical, natural history and trekking tours, Michaela is an active conservationist. Since 1996 she has taken part in different biodiversity projects and is popular with quite a number of the Bulgarian nature conservation NGOs.

Michaela's professional skills, inquisitive nature and charming personality are a promise for an excellent tour. Michaela is fluent in German and English.

Boris Assyov
Tour leader

Boris has studied Botany at the Department of Botany of the Sofia University and graduated in 2001 with a thesis on the taxonomy of the yarrows (Achillea distans group) in Bulgaria.

Since 2001 Boris has worked in the Institute of Botany at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as a botanist and mycologist. In 2007 he was employed by the Center of Ecology and Hydrology in Lancaster as a botanist in the Countryside Survey 2007.

Boris is an author of numerous scientific papers and some scientific and popular books, including three editions of the Conspectus of the Bulgarian Vascular Flora. He is also a main contributor for the CD Flora Bulgarica - a multimedia CD-ROM about the Bulgarian flora. Recently he also contributed to the new national Red Data Book of plants and fungi.

Since 2002 Boris has been a botanist guide of a number of tours. He has extensive knowledge about the Bulgarian plants and he is also quite familiar with some difficult plant groups that are usually neglected during botanical tours (e. g. grasses, sedges and rushes).